Doctors and other medical professionals often use powered surgical instruments for dissecting bones and tissues, and for a variety of other purposes. Frequently, it is important to lubricate the instruments for proper usages. For example, a pneumatically powered surgical instrument may include a pneumatic motor that is connected to a fluid supply source, and a lubrication system is typically placed inline between the fluid supply source and the pneumatic motor to provide lubrication to the surgical instrument.
Traditionally, the lubrication system must be manually calibrated and/or activated according to predetermined guidelines. For example, the lubrication system may be set at a specific dripping rate for providing oil to the surgical instrument. Therefore, to supply a certain amount of lubrication to the instrument, it is important to maintain a proper dripping rate. However, such manual operation is prone to mistakes and inaccuracy, and the amount of supplied oil may vary such that too much or too little oil may be provided to the surgical instrument. This can result in premature wear of the surgical instrument in the case of too little oil, and possible leaking and contamination of an operating room in the case of too much oil.
Therefore, it is desired to provide an improved lubrication system.